Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[McBryce]

Modern letter post numbers: http://news.upu.int/insight/backgrounders/key-figures/

Victorian era mail numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Fourpenny_Post

Pony Express numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express

We're not even comparing apples with oranges with lemons here, we're comparing apples with a small dog with a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Maybe you should add the UPS /DHL/Hermes pricing pages to that list as an example how we've actually gone backwards as far as "bang per buck" is concerned.

McBryce.

[SilverSolder]

Modern letter post numbers: http://news.upu.int/insight/backgrounders/key-figures/

Victorian era mail numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Fourpenny_Post

Pony Express numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express

We're not even comparing apples with oranges with lemons here, we're comparing apples with a small dog with a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Maybe you should add the UPS /DHL/Hermes pricing pages to that list as an example how we've actually gone backwards as far as "bang per buck" is concerned.

McBryce.

Are you saying it is more expensive to send mail today than in the past?

Basically, I think the modern price level is set by the economic principle "what is the maximum people are willing to pay before they stop using it", and let them pay that (grudgingly maybe, but they still pay!).    This of course means they skim off a lot of the profit for small online businesses that can't negotiate more realistic prices with the carriers.

I notice that Uber has started delivering packages this year...   you know when it makes financial sense to have a guy drive out in his car and deliver the package for you by taxi at a price not far off sending it with a big carrier, the big carriers have lost the plot.  Now, all Uber has to do is send a van between cities once a day or so...

[bd139]

Sending stuff is bloody cheap these days. I don't know why people are complaining. I sent something yesterday UPS for £4 pick up next day delivery.

[mnementh]

Ever got visited by this dude?      

Yes, just yesterday. 

Yes... this morning. His name is Marcus. 

My son decided to try and recharge the AAA alkaline batteries from his Darth Vader alarm clock; results were as you'd expect: Exploded battery, electrolyte all over my desk and charger. 

After calming him down from freaking out all over me as I came walking down the stairs still groggy-eyed, I went into Disaster Mitigation Mode and spent over an hour BEFORE MY MORNING CUPPA dismantling  (8 tamper-resist screws, 4 under a huge label with destructions that tried to rip every 1/2 inch, even with heat ) the charger (10 independent-slot Tenergy unit from back when they made such things RIGHT) to neutralize the alkali with Windex and then wash everything/blow dry with compressed air.



It is now sitting on the back porch, baking in the sun.   


So then we had the "It's not safe to use my stuff without asking" talk with him for the umpteenth time, and he actually surprised me:

"I'm sorry for annoying you." he apologized.

"That's not what you should be sorry for." I answered. He grew genuinely thoughtful for a moment, then replied:

"I'm sorry for using your stuff without asking."

"Good... good. You've just taken your first step into a larger world." I answer, cracking a slight grin. He started laughing.

"That's from Star Wars... you quoted Obi-Wan..." he bubbled.

"Yes, I did. The point is you are starting to think like a grown-up. Good job, son. Now you can make me a bagel to atone for this morning's sins... I haven't had breakfast yet."

mnem

[med6753]

So then we had the "It's not safe to use my stuff without asking" talk with him for the umpteenth time, and he actually surprised me:

"I'm sorry for annoying you." he apologized.

"That's not what you should be sorry for." I answered. He grew genuinely thoughtful for a moment, then replied:

"I'm sorry for using your stuff without asking."

"Good... good. You've just taken your first step into a larger world." I answer, cracking a slight grin. He started laughing.

I had step children that never learned this, no matter how many times the subject came up. 

[mnementh]

A British stagecoach was actually faster in 1836 than my package managed in 2020! 

The scheduled coach left London at 19:30 and arrived in Liverpool at 16:50 the next day, a distance of about 220 miles (350 km), at an average speed to about 10 miles per hour (16 km/h), including stops to change horses!

That is actually pretty impressive...

(Attachment Link)

The Comet shown actually ran on the London to Exeter route. The GPO mail coaches, which were not usually named, were the fastest, achieving around 10mph, inclusive of stops to change horses. By 1836, a team of 4 horses could be changed in about 90 seconds. Each stage was about 10 miles, and each horse worked a 1 hour 'shift' each day for 4 days and then rested on the 5th. To work one mail coach in each direction each day required about one horse per mile of route to actually pull the coaches - plus many others to haul fodder and dung (and produce more horses).

Mail coach timing was strictly regulated. Even in the 1790's, stage timings were given to the nearest 5 minutes, and checked and recorded by the postmasters at each stage, using a clock carried by the mail guard on the coach (along with his blunderbus). Since local solar time was used, the clocks were adjusted to gain or lose time according to the longitudes of the starting & ending towns.

Mail coaches didn't carry parcels though.

All this and much more transport nerdery in: P.J.G. Ransom, The Archaeology of the Transport Revolution, World's Work Ltd, Kingswood 1984, ISBN 0-437-14335-X

It's funny, we think so much progress has been made (and it has!),  but our ancestors did a pretty impressive job with the technology they had at the time.

Yeah; mostly it was simple manpower and people willing to pay them to do a job rather than trying to find ANY way NOT to pay a person for working.

To put that in perspective... I've read that Victorian-era London had 3 mail deliveries a day; it was not unusual to receive a letter at breakfast, respond to it and receive a reply in time for tea.

Right now, I'd like to be able to count on deliveries 6 days a week (as "promised") instead of 3... 

mnem
 

[Saskia]

4 weeks from Vienna to Ingelheim via Austrian Post / DHL. It's 800 km. You could have walked the distance in that time.

[tonyalbus]

Is it a Philips, is it a Fluke, or both... i found 3 types and i own one... its actualy better then i thought.

[med6753]

To put that in perspective... I've read that Victorian-era London had 3 mail deliveries a day; it was not unusual to receive a letter at breakfast, respond to it and receive a reply in time for tea.

Right now, I'd like to be able to count on deliveries 6 days a week (as "promised") instead of 3... 

mnem
 

But you can read this within seconds of me posting it and tell you to go piss up a rope 100 or even 1000 times before tea. 

[SilverSolder]

Sending stuff is bloody cheap these days. I don't know why people are complaining. I sent something yesterday UPS for £4 pick up next day delivery.

Sending a modest parcel from the US to the UK is typically $20 - $30...

[SilverSolder]

Is it a Philips, is it a Fluke, or both... i found 3 types and i own one... its actualy better then i thought.

What year did the Fluke/Philips relationship start?

I have an old Fluke 8505a that also displays the "Fluke Philips Alliance" sticker on the top.

[mnementh]

...My favourite military surplus supplier of overpriced tat has added numerous items today, always good for a laugh:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Souriau-Oscilloscope-1532-B3/224050611938

£150 for a dead scope? I'll grant you a 40kV input range is quite interesting, but I doubt the bandwidth is huge, since it looks like it's designed for diagnosing car ignition problems.

They were horrible oscilloscopes; the reason they look like a TV is because most of 'em used a B&W TV CRT & Yoke for deflection. Yes... let that sink in. You can imagine the BW & fidelity. 

They were adequate to show the point close, magnetic flux generation, point open, capacitor discharge, magnetic flux collapse and ringing events, but just barely. No way in hell was any portion of the waveform but the HV peak discharge voltage anywhere even close to calibrated.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

To put that in perspective... I've read that Victorian-era London had 3 mail deliveries a day; it was not unusual to receive a letter at breakfast, respond to it and receive a reply in time for tea.

Right now, I'd like to be able to count on deliveries 6 days a week (as "promised") instead of 3... 

mnem
 

But you can read this within seconds of me posting it and tell you to go piss up a rope 100 or even 1000 times before tea. 

Yes, but the tangible component is lost; I can't touch the letter and feel the WEG in your penstrokes, nor can you smell the piss and the rope I'm enclosing within. 

mnem
This is little better than sitting in a telegraph office, listening to the ratta-tatta-tat-tat...

[Saskia]

yer wearing a leash ? you must be married 

[BU508A]

Hello,

here is, as promised previously, the teardown of my Hameg / Rohde & Schwarz 8112-3    6 1/2 digit DMM.
It is a nice meter and one thing on this meter I'm finding funny are the illuminated input ports.
Depending on what mode you have chosen, the input ports are illuminated.   

This is the frontside, looks very clean and nice. Which is, I think, the whole motto of this meter.


Backside, with intact calibration sticker:


Overview, lots of empty spaces. Room for add-ons and improvements?


I assume, that this is the brain of the meter. I think, it is a PIC µC but somebody decided to scrap off the ID. 
At the bottom in the middle there is a rms-to-DC converter, an AD637


This is the reference of the meter, a LT1236:


Here we have a part from the input protection and range switching:


The backside of the front panel. Not very much to see:


This is the PSU, a very modular design:


Mains input:


Some FROLYT caps and the DC output:


And this is the HM 8112-3 in comparison to a Keithley DMM 7510 and connected to a Fluke 732A:


So, I hope you've enjoyed this little teardown.

[PA0PBZ]

here is, as promised previously, the teardown of my Hameg / Rohde & Schwarz 8112-3    6 1/2 digit DMM.

I'm not impressed, up to the point that I wonder where they bought it...

[mnementh]

yer wearing a leash ? you must be married 

With pups. But the leash is only when I'm outside... 

mnem
I'm as surprised as you; they do still let me outside in the daytime.

[BU508A]

here is, as promised previously, the teardown of my Hameg / Rohde & Schwarz 8112-3    6 1/2 digit DMM.

I'm not impressed, up to the point that I wonder where they bought it...

I think, they didn't bought it. To me, it is looking like a typical Hameg design. Probably developed right before R&S has bought Hameg.

Just checked on ebay. This seller is offering 5 of the 8112-3 but the price is completely ridiculous.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264513612962

This is a picture of a HM 8112-3 without the Rohde & Schwarz label:

I took this picture last year at the UKW-Tage in Weinheim.

[Cerebus]

... to neutralize the alkali with Windex ...

Neutralize?

pH        : 10.7 (at 25ºC)

[BU508A]

I'm as surprised as you; they do still let me outside in the daytime.

Keeps the nasty things away from the house. 

[Cerebus]

To put that in perspective... I've read that Victorian-era London had 3 mail deliveries a day; it was not unusual to receive a letter at breakfast, respond to it and receive a reply in time for tea.

No at least 6 deliveries a day.

To quote official documentation from the time:

London is divided into 8 postal districts, in which the number of deliveries varies from 12 to 6 daily, between 7.30 a.m. and 7.45 p.m.

[TorinoFermic]

Here I got my loot with my HP 3478A and Fluke 8502A. I must figure out how to repair the fluke one with their "Error 4", this fluke will be a good device to learn the general concept of repairing it.
 

[SilverSolder]

To put that in perspective... I've read that Victorian-era London had 3 mail deliveries a day; it was not unusual to receive a letter at breakfast, respond to it and receive a reply in time for tea.

No at least 6 deliveries a day.

To quote official documentation from the time:

London is divided into 8 postal districts, in which the number of deliveries varies from 12 to 6 daily, between 7.30 a.m. and 7.45 p.m.

That's actually comparable with email, if you take into account that you go to meetings and do other things and are not hovering over your inbox the whole day...

[Neomys Sapiens]

here is, as promised previously, the teardown of my Hameg / Rohde & Schwarz 8112-3    6 1/2 digit DMM.

I'm not impressed, up to the point that I wonder where they bought it...

I think, they didn't bought it. To me, it is looking like a typical Hameg design. Probably developed right before R&S has bought Hameg.

Just checked on ebay. This seller is offering 5 of the 8112-3 but the price is completely ridiculous.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264513612962

This is a picture of a HM 8112-3 without the Rohde & Schwarz label:

I took this picture last year at the UKW-Tage in Weinheim.

Yep, that is consistent with the things I saw there around 2013. We were talking about power supplies and possible help for them by me via a large temp agency. I think that I have not been able to mask my disgust sufficiently as the project did not come to fruition. I really could not find anything in that PSU which I would consider a positive attribute, save the fact that it would supply somehow adjustable and regulated power in it's state of delivery.

[Saskia]

some slight progress with the trashed RockPI.

Received empty SPI ROMS (those pesky serial SOP8 thingies that are too small for comfort and managed to tack it on. Managed to find the RockPI on the USB-Port of a Linux system and flash the SPI with a boot loader.
Now it is trying to PXE-boot, but I cannot find the fucking kernel files and its bloody ethernet address ...
bloody fucking hell.

it would probably have been easier just to jimmyrig a bloody uSD.